The amputee breakdancer from Tunisia

Project info

Emeer Guesmi, also known by his b-boy name Zulu Rema, is a 16-year-old art student/dancer hailing from Hammam Zriba, in the northern Tunisian. When he started suffering from a rare medical condition at the age of two, doctors thought to have no other option but to amputate both of his legs.
“I started breakdancing because I lost my legs I was sitting at home all the time. I felt useless. I tried football, but I was practically shooed away. I really felt like giving up. But then my close friend Nader convinced me to join a breakdance workshop when he saw me one day on my way home, using my arms to move forward.”
Emeer’s friend motivated him to fight through. “He was a b-boy himself. We trained and trained until I became good. he says. Yet life hit the legless dancer hard a second time around when his dear companion died in a motor accident, in front of his eyes, in September this year. “Nader is part of my best breakdance memories, and he is the one who inspires me to keep dancing,” Zulu Rema sighs. “Even after his death.”
The amputee dancer says that he hopes of migrating some day.
“People here don’t respect my hobbies. They hate us. That’s the worst thing about being a b-boy,” he adds. “Life here is not good at all. I hate living in my country. But hip hop means everything to me, and without it I would die.
When I dance, I feel happy. It’s all I have, and it’s my life.
Breakdancing saves my life!!!!